


Deadly Deceptions

by Royalwriter



Series: BeauJester Week 2019 [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Ballroom Dancing, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Pining, Undercover, revivify
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-24 18:31:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20019088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Royalwriter/pseuds/Royalwriter
Summary: Jester and Beau go undercover to catch an empire spy. Jester thinks that pretending to date will be a great idea, until she realizes that it's much harder to hide her feelings when pretending to have them.





	Deadly Deceptions

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoy this one! I might come back and turn it into a longer work one day when I have more time, I really liked the concept.

Jester can’t stop spinning. This new dress is absolutely beautiful, because they finally, finally have the money to buy something actually nice. And sure, it’s for a disguise, and after tonight she probably won’t have a chance to wear it again, but it’s silk.

It’s silk and it’s layered so many times that it’s heavy and flows around her when she spins. It was almost thirty gold pieces. Cheaper than spell slots if they got caught though, Caleb had reminded them quietly. 

Jester thinks he might have known how badly she wanted the dress. Either way, she has it now, and her hair looks perfect and her and Beau are going to a ball and it’s going to be perfect!

Well. They’re going undercover to try and catch an Empire spy and if anything goes wrong they’ll almost certainly both die even with Jester’s revivify and the rest of the Mighty Nein waiting outside.

Still though! A ball!

She gives herself one more twirl in the mirror. Her hair is actually properly cleaned too, for the first time in what feels like forever. Since they needed to go undercover, she took advantage of it to gussy herself up. 

After the final twirl she pushes open the door to go bother Beau. Beau got ready in Yasha’s room, because Yasha’s till missing, and Jester had talked about how much she envied the other girls back home who got to out to big balls, and meet their dates there.

Beau smiled, and told Jester that for that night, they’d be the girls that everyone else got jealous of.

Jester’s really, really excited.

She gets to Yasha’s room and knocks quickly on the door, rapid taps until Beau opens it with a lopsided grin.

Jester’s mouth falls open. Beau looks really good. She’s in a fitted blue suit that matches her eyes perfectly, the tug of the jacket across her shoulders empathizes how buff they are. Someone, Nott, probably, has braided down the center of her hair so it’s out of her face. She’s beautiful, she’s breathtaking, and pretending to date her might actually kill Jester.

It doesn’t help that Beau’s eyes have gone soft looking at Jester. Beau holds out her for Jester to take.

“Well, I’ll have the prettiest date in the place. Even if we are spies, shall we?” She says.

Jester gives a mock curtesy, shaking herself out of staring. They have a mission, they need to follow the mission, “We shall.”

* * *

The ball is beautiful. Even while keeping a constant eye out for the spy it’s hard not to get wrapped up in the majesty of it all. There’s live musicians, dozens of them, all playing beautiful waltzes that Jester’s never heard before. The only live music she usually heard was her mama singing, the instruments alone are something else.

Everyone’s having so much fun too. Beau gets a couple of dirty looks, but most of the couples are too focused on each other, or on dancing with other nobles that they’re trying to impress to pay her much mind. 

Jester and Beau are sitting by the dessert table. The desserts are all beautiful too, some of them just little puffs of sugar that shocked Jester so much she inhaled it all and started coughing.

The novelty of the desserts is fading though, and now she’s just watching the dance floor. There’s no eyes on their target yet.

“Hey Jes, you wanna dance?” Beau says, mock casually. Both her hands are tucked into her pockets.

“Are you sure we should? We might miss something,” the Bright Queen had been very, very clear about how important this mission was. Jester’s scared to screw it up.

“Or, we might see something. Never know, our target could be out there right now. ‘Sides we’re at ball, we should dance.”

“Okay. If you say so,” a smile slips onto Jester’s face. She does really like the idea of dancing like this, especially with Beau.

Beau takes her hand and tugs her onto the dance floor. Jester’s not surprised that Beau is light on her feet, she’s seen her fight enough times to know that, but she is surprised that Beau knows how to lead in a ball dance. Jester’s actually stumbling along after her.

“Where did you learn how to dance?” Jester asks, shouting to be heard over the music.

“Monks had to do something on weekends!” Beau shouts back.

Jester laughs. The music shifts from the faster upbeat song to a slower waltz, and Beau pulls Jester close to her chest. 

For a minute, neither of them talk and it’s just the swell of the music. Jester imagines she can hear Beau’s heartbeat, though she’s nowhere near close enough to her chest and the music is far too loud. 

If this were a love story, this would be the moment that Jester confesses. She would pull back, and kiss Beau and tell her that she thinks she’s been in love with her since she almost died in the cave of a dragon. That she wanted to tell Beau after, but didn’t know how so she bit back the words. She remembers her mama saying something about making life a story and pulls back to say as much when a beautiful woman in a long black dress approaches them.

It’s not their target, thankfully. She has another woman on her hip, a drow much shorter than most, but neither of them match the description they were given so Jester lets herself relax. She lets the confession dissipate from her lips.

“Can we help you?” Beau asks.

The lady curtsies with a smile, “You can darling, you’re both absolutely stunning and word has it you carry the Bright Queen’s blessing. Could we perhaps each steal one of you for a dance? It would mean so much just for honestly our ability to gossip at otherwise boring events. We’d have the social capital of the century.”

Her shorter friend nods eagerly, “Please?”

Beau and Jester exchange a glance, shrugging. It might help them to see more of the dance floor.

“Fine. I’ll take shortie,” Beau steps away from Jester. The moment passes.

Jester takes the hands of the taller, beautiful woman. Normally Jester would be giddy over her, but right now anyone but Beau just feels hollow. Still, she smiles.

“I’m Jester! It’s very nice to meet you!”

“Oh I know who you are, you’re all the talk of the town with that tree on your house, tell me how did you do it?”

“Oh— well my friend Caduceus really likes this goddess who likes lots of plants, so he always has lots of plant magic around him. He built it!” 

“Really, fascinating, fascinating.” They spin with the music, and it’s starting to make Jester dizzy.

They’re moving through the crowd now, and Jester meant to keep Beau close, but she’s not leading, and they’re gone, and they’re towards the wall.

“Now, darling. Why don’t you come with me, there’s someone who would love to meet you,” there’s power in her words. It washes over Jester.

She knows she shouldn’t leave. She should yell, call for Beau. She doesn’t want to. She wants to? She doesn’t say anything. Instead she lets this beautiful woman lead her from the room, down the hall. Further, further, away from Beau, out of the range of Nott’s message outside the door. They walk back other strangers. No one stops them.

Further they go.

* * *

Jester doesn’t know how long passes before Beau appears at the door. She sees their target. She knows she should do something about it, but she can’t find it in her. They talk a bit. She doesn’t process the words.

It continues like that until the door bursts open. Beau’s in the doorway, covered in blood and panting.

“Get the fuck away from her,” Beau’s teeth are gritted with pain. Jester wants to move. Jester can’t move.

Or at least, she can’t move until the empire spy raises her hand 

Jester screams as she watches Beau fall. She finds strength she didn’t know she had and runs forward from the dragonborn guard who’d been keeping her close.

Their claw swipes at her wrist, cutting her as she moves and she turns, screaming in infernal and casting Hellish Rebuke.

It takes them by surprise, giving her enough time to get out the diamonds kept in the sash wrapped around her thigh. She falls to her knees by Beau’s side, praying. Traveler please, Traveler, she needs her. She needs Beau back right now.

The power flows through her like it did when she brought Caduceus back. She feels it flow into Beau, feels the Traveler’s hands on her and for a moment she can feel every vein in Beau’s body. She can feel the poison magic that took her down, and she feels it leave.

Faintly, down the hall she hears the sound of a fight. Beau must have alerted the rest of the Mighty Nein before getting here. It doesn’t matter right now. 

“Please, Beau please. I need you, I love you, I need you, come on, Traveler,” she’s sobbing, she’s shaking, but none of that matters. She needs to focus on the spell, needs to save Beau.

“I love you, I love you, I should have said it before please come back, hear me please,” Jester doesn’t breath between frantic sobs until Beau comes too with a gasp for air almost as violent as the spell that felled her.

Blood’s still dribbling from Beau’s mouth, and Jester’s still spewing love confessions. Beau gives her half a smile around her swollen lip.

“Well now I’m not sure I’m not still dreaming,” it’s such a corny line that even through her tears Jester laughs.

Now she gets her moment, now, even in the midst of the violence Jester bends down and gets her kiss. 

After, they both join the fray. There’s a few close calls, but with the rest of their party behind them no one else actually dies, no one else falls and has to be brought back from beyond the brink.

The dress is destroyed completely, Jester would be sad about it, but as they’re leaving with the spy’s guards dead and the spy taken away, Beau uses her for support, and laughs, and steals another kiss. 

Sure, it didn’t play out exactly like the stories Jester read, but she thinks she got the better deal.


End file.
